


love in winter

by toromeo (ald0us)



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: M/M, it's what they deserve, pure fluff, shadowhunters rairpair secret santa 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 14:36:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13102221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ald0us/pseuds/toromeo
Summary: With Valentine defeated, Simon and Alec celebrate Chanukah with Simon's family.





	love in winter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nighttimemachinery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nighttimemachinery/gifts).



> Hey so I'm not Jewish myself so if anything in this fic makes you ://// and you feel like letting me know so I can fix it, please don't hesitate!! Hope you enjoy! <3 (Set post 2b)

“You banished frickin’ _Azazel!”_ Simon exclaimed, gesturing excitedly for emphasis. “And like, a ton of other scarily accomplished things I don’t really want to list out while we’re freezing on my Mom’s doorstep. They’ll love you! Especially Bubbie Helen, she always said—“

Simon broke off. Telling Alec Bubbie Helen always said _there’s no point in dating a man if he’s under six foot_ would probably just intimidate him even more. “Uh, never mind what Bubbie Helen always said. The point is, my family are like, the most normal people you can imagine. Like, no one’s gonna pull a knife on you, promise.”

“Yeah. That’s uh, sort of what I’m afraid of.” Alec shuffled his boots against the icy concrete, taking great and sudden interest in his breath clouding in the freezing air and solidifying on the frayed edges of his dark blue scarf. “Shadowhunters don’t exactly have the greatest track record with ‘normal.’ I don’t want to freak them out.”

“Are you kidding me? Of course they won’t be freaked out.” A stray thought nagged at Simon, and he pulled on it. “As long as you don’t, like, mention blood-sucking, demon-hunting, or the genocide we stopped three weeks ago.”

Alec stared at him. Simon stared back. “Okay okay,” he said, throwing up his hands in defeat. “Maybe you do sort of have a reason to be worried. But can we maybe worry in a Starbucks or something? I don’t really generate body heat and it’s sort of freezing out here.”

Like the tundras of Hoth, Simon thought privately, but he doubted Alec would recall that part of _Empire Strikes Back,_ considering he’d slept through about 60% of the film and asked bewildering questions at the other 40%.

The things Simon Lewis did for love.

“It’s fine,” Alec said quickly. He was not a fan of Starbucks, especially since he couldn’t keep the sizes straight to save his life, and tended to forget his order the moment he stepped up to the counter. It was very endearing. He squared his shoulders, turning towards his mother’s door as if it were the gates to hell. “I’ll figure it out.”

“You sure?”

Alec offered him a quick, confident smile, then pecked him on the cheek, then gave a strangled sort of cry. “By the Angel, you weren’t kidding about being cold.”

Simon laughed and reached for the doorbell.

 

 

 

 

His mom, sister, and grandmother wasted no time in peppering them with questions. No later than giving them both crushing hugs and exchanging introductions as Simon and Alec wrestled off their boots in the doorway did they ask where Alec went to school, what he was studying, his opinion on sports, whether he’d seen this on the news or whether he’d seen that new movie. Simon fielded the ones Alec couldn’t answer, saying he was an exchange student from Canada who went to his college, majored in Pol Sci (at this Alec made a face that suggested he thought this sounded like some dangerous disease), and generally only spectator American politics in vague horror. Alec gamely supplied a small town in Alberta from which he hailed, that he didn’t follow sports, and that he and Simon had been to see _The Last Jedi_ a week prior.

His mother and sister found this beyond precious, and Bubbie Helen watched him with shrewd approval from the head of the table.

“You came just in time, actually,” Rebecca said, pushing through the dining room and nearly knocking over the Menorah on the windowsill with her elbow, which only Alec’s sharply-honed shadowhunter reflexes managed to catch. She thanked him and apologized to the world in general profusely. Simon followed her into the kitchen, hugging Bubbie Helen and accepting a warm kiss on the cheek (“My, aren’t you cold!” she exclaimed) as he passed.

His mother handed him a mug of hot chocolate and a bag of marshmallows, which he passed to Alec. “We were just about to decorate cookies,” she said, offering Alec a doting smile as he eyed the marshmallows with obvious excitement. Simon grabbed a second spatula and helped Rebecca scrape the multitudes of dreidel-shaped cookies from the cooling sheet and transferring them to a plate.

Alec watched the proceedings with interest. Simon had always gotten the impression his understanding of Judaism was more from a theological standpoint, and while some shadowhunter traditions seemed to echo elements of most of the world religions, he had clearly never decorated dreidel cookies.

There were a lot of things shadowhunters never did, so wrapped up in training and war. Privately, Simon thought that loss of childhood innocence was their loss.

Something must have shown on his face because Alec said, rather suddenly, “Anything I can do to help?”

“You can drink that cocoa,” said Bubbie Helen, indicating the chair next to her. “And warm up. I’m getting cold just looking at you.” The last was with a withering look Simon’s way, as if he had somehow mistreated his boyfriend.

“I, uh, insisted on walking, actually,” Alec put in quickly, sitting down obediently and sipping at his cocoa through a veritable mountain of marshmallows. He had quite the sweet tooth, but indulged it so rarely.

“Well, wear a warmer coat.” she finished, as if it were final.

Rebecca and Simon brought the two plates teeming with cookies to the table, and their mom followed with bowls of frosting and pieces of candy to for decoration.

“I’ve got an entire Pintrest board of ideas,” Rebecca told Simon excitedly. “We even got the pastel colors to come out right this year. And mom found a frosting sleeve for the delicate work.” She rounded the table and sat opposite Simon, who had settled in next to Alec, bumping his elbow gently against Alec’s. He offered Simon a quick, reassuring smile, the strain in his eyes lessened considerably.

By the time all the cookies were decorated, Alec was laughing loudly as he battled Rebecca for the last chocolate chips for his cow-themed dreidel cookie, and Simon’s stomach ached from laughing at their antics. (“Really,” said his mother. “We have another bag in the pantry.”) He had hot cocoa on his upper lip and a bit of stray glitter in his hair from brushing up against the Chanukah decorations strung from the chandelier. Bubbie Helen and his mother exchanged significant looks, probably telepathically exchanging ideas for his and Alec’s wedding colors.

After dinner, during which Alec, Simon, and Rebecca consumed their respective body weights in latkes (Bubbie Helen’s recipie was, as she claimed, truly the best), Rebecca cajoled their mother and Bubbie Helen into watching _Wonder Woman_ with them. Alec, as usual, fell asleep, but with his head resting on Simon’s shoulder and the slow, peaceful pace of his breathing, Simon couldn’t bring himself to be affronted on Diana’s behalf. He woke up in time for the ending and to assure Rebecca it was just as good as she promised.

It was nearly midnight when they finally bundled up and said their goodbyes, Alec clutching the Tupperware containing his prized cow cookie, Simon laden down with bag of chocolate gelt (“To share with your friends,” his mother had explained. Simon felt a stab of guilt and mild amusement remembering no one at the _Jade Wolf_ would be able to partake). Even Bubbie Helen came round to see them off, indicating her approval.

The cold outside hit Simon like a buffeting sheet of ice and he shivered. It was dark out, but he could see as well as if it were daylight, pinpricks of stars just managing to peek through the city’s smog.

“Thank you,” Alec said from beside him.

“Thank me?” Simon said incredulously. “You just spent six hours with my family and had to pretend to be interested in _sports._ I should be thanking you. Seriously, you were perfect. They loved you.”

Alec unwound his scarf and, ignoring Simon’s protests, wrapped it around his neck. It was warm and smelled of his cologne, and Simon ceased complaining faster than honor dictated. He pushed himself up on his toes and pressed a soft, lingering kiss to Alec’s lips, the heat of their breath fogging up his glasses.

“It was wonderful,” Alec said, after they parted. Simon could just see his hazel eyes through the clearing patch in his foggy glasses, and in the moonlight they seemed to sparkle. He took Simon’s mittened hand in his and together they craned back their heads to look at the stars.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays! <3


End file.
